Meridian is prime for a weekend journey | Leisure/Life
One won’t equate the title Driefuss with three toes however that’s how the German immigrant noticed it when he moved to Meridian, Mississippi, within the early 1800s. Driefuss translated to English means tripod, however Michael Driefuss most popular Threefoot. And so started a Meridian legacy.
The household ran a wholesale grocery enterprise on the town, then descendants opened a skyscraping workplace constructing in 1929. The artwork deco-designed constructing grew to become the tallest constructing in Mississippi on the time, and stays the tallest in East Mississippi. Since “Threefoot” was included within the constructing’s title, Ripley’s Consider It or Not performed on the weird title, calling the constructing “a 15-story constructing on a 3 foot lot.”
The Threefoot Lodge started as an workplace constructing in 1929 and most of the unique architectural parts stay.
Like many architectural beauties of one other age, the Threefoot fell out of favor and stood vacant for years. A current renovation by Marriott has given the previous lady a facelift, morphing into immediately’s Threefoot Lodge, a Tribute Portfolio property.
However that’s not the one nod to an previous Meridian household. Each spring the Threefoot Competition consumes the downtown district, and catty-corner from the lodge sits the Threefoot Brewery in a renovated 1924 Service provider and Farmer’s Financial institution. The brewery isn’t related to the lodge, though it contributes a particular pilsner to the inn, stated Jerome Trahan, common supervisor.
The MSU Riley Heart
Subsequent to each Threefoot-inspired buildings lies a historic area that routinely attracts guests. The Riley Heart dates to the late 1800s when two Rothenberg brothers constructed the “Grand Opera Home” and neighboring Marks Rothenberg division retailer to encourage vacationers touring by prepare between New Orleans and Chicago to cease and revel in Meridian. The theater hosted vaudeville reveals, touring reveals and silent films of the early twentieth century. It closed in 1927 however was later renovated and opened as a theater in 2006.
The Threefoot Lodge started as an workplace constructing in 1929 and most of the unique architectural parts stay.
It’s now operated by Mississippi State College with reveals starting from musical acts, similar to The Temptations, 4 Tops and Emmylou Harris, to theatrical productions. For extra info and a schedule of upcoming occasions, go to https://www.msurileycenter.com.
The MAX Museum
Yearly, the Mississippi Arts+Leisure Expertise, generally known as The MAX, inducts a number of Mississippi natives who’re giants within the fields of cultural arts, music, performing arts, visible arts and literature. Guests will likely be amazed at simply what number of well-known artists have sprung from the Magnolia State.
The Mississippi Arts + Leisure Expertise, or The MAX, took its first step towards actuality in 2001, when the Mississippi State Legislature enacted Senate Invoice 2666, offering for “an academic, entertaining, and interactive facility” in Meridian to rejoice Mississippians’ contributions to arts and leisure.
This 12 months’s inductees, at a ceremony that may happen on Dec. 15, are Sam Cooke and W.C. Useful of Clarksdale, Marty Stuart of Philadelphia, Pulitzer Prize and Nationwide Guide Award-winner Alice Walker of Jackson and Ida B. Wells, journalist and activist from Holly Springs.
Go to The MAX for the large 360-degree wall that highlights the 2022 inductees, in addition to previous recipients: Elvis, Tennessee Williams, Oprah Winfrey, Eudora Welty, James Earl Jones — the record is intensive. The exhibit provides an immersive, multisensory expertise to permit guests to see, hear and revel in music of the well-known Mississippians.
The Mississippi Arts + Leisure Expertise, generally known as The MAX, celebrates Mississippi with quite a lot of interactive everlasting displays and world-class altering displays.
The remainder of the museum is a delight, from its interactive displays on the state’s music, delicacies, literature and surroundings to its rotating artwork collections.
Weidmann’s
One other immigrant to Meridian — this time Felix Weidmann from Switzerland — opened a restaurant within the Union Lodge with solely a counter and 4 stools.
In the present day, Weidmann’s serves crowds of holiday makers who come for the Southern delicacies, the historic pictures lining the partitions and the trademark peanut butter served in handmade ceramic crocks made by an area potter. The story goes that butter was briefly provide throughout World Conflict II so Henry Weidmann, descendant of Felix, served peanut butter to exchange their common crackers.
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